For many models, posing in Sports Illustrated is a dream come true. The magazine’s iconic swimsuit issue helps young models break into the modeling world and reinforces older models’ positions as among the best in the world.

Supermodel Paulina Porizkova is a Sports Illustrated legend. Raised in Sweden, she was on the cover of the swimsuit issue two years in a row, from 1984 to 1985. She has gone on to be one of fashion’s most influential models and is now a successful author and feminist.

For the most part, Paulina’s modeling days are behind her — but in an appearance on the Rachael Ray Showin February 2018, the model revealed what made her change her mind.

Paulina, who is married to the Carssinger Ric Ocasek, revealed that Sports Illustrated called her around Christmas 2017, asking if she would be interested in posing for the magazine again.

At first, she admits, her answer was one big “no.” As she tells Rachael, “I’m, like, nearly 53 years old. Like, this is not the moment for me to be trying to be… sexy and flirtatious on the beach — just seemed like that era has passed.”

But Paulina did eventually agree to pose for the magazine. She says everything changed when the magazine told her the shoot was something different. She wouldn’t be posing sexily on the beach in a bikini — instead, she writes for SI, the shoot was all about “words and nudity.”

Now a writer, the idea of plastering words on her body piqued Paulina’s curiosity. “Melding me, the model, with me, the writer, was an irresistible offer,” she writes. “I would get to use my body in a new way: to make people read!”

After a long, stressful deliberation, Paulina chose one word to paint on her body: truth.

Check out the video below to hear more from Paulina and why she settled on “truth,” and please SHARE this video on Facebook!